Infected Red Ale?

Meatwad

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Woke up this morning to pitch my yeast for a batch I brewed Friday afternoon (let chill overnight and wasn't home to pitch yesterday) and found some airlock activity so I was a little intrigued. Opened it up to find a layer of krausen. Pulled a sample and it doesn't taste sour (yet). Looks like it lost 2 gravity points though. Thoughts?

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That happened to me once. I had to leave the wort it in the fermenter for two days waiting for the LHB to open because I foolishly didn't have any yeast. I pitched anyway and bottled it. Turned out to be a dumper but maybe you will have better luck. I'd give it a go.
 
That happened to me once. I had to leave the wort it in the fermenter for two days waiting for the LHB to open because I foolishly didn't have any yeast. I pitched anyway and bottled it. Turned out to be a dumper but maybe you will have better luck. I'd give it a go.
I had some spare packs of S-04 so I pitched one this morning just to see what it does. It's cheap enough that I don't care if it gets dumped.
 
That is unfortunate, hope it is salvageable. Even if the ingredient cost is low, it is a big investment of time to brew. Fingers crossed for you!
 
YEP something has snuck in there and kickstarted fermentation. You know what you coulda done poured it all back into the kettle heated it up to 70c let sit for 20 or so minutes then chill back down then pitch your 04.o_O
 
You'll have a wild fermentation. It could easily be something living in the plastic of the bucket but likely environmental intrusion. Since it got such a good start, the S-04 won't likely make a lot of difference.It looks more like krausen rather than pellicle so it may be interesting and not completely sour. Either way, let it run and see what it does. I wouldn't use that bucket for anything but cleaning, though. It'll probably harbor wild yeast and alter every beer you ferment in it.
 
YEP something has snuck in there and kickstarted fermentation. You know what you coulda done poured it all back into the kettle heated it up to 70c let sit for 20 or so minutes then chill back down then pitch your 04.o_O
I thought about boiling it again but I’ll just take my losses if it turns out bad. New fermenters are on the way.
 
As JA said, I'd be guessing wild yeast or your standard yeast from cracks in the bucket. If it was cold the Lacto wouldn't have dropped the gravity that much and if it was warm it would probably have given you a sour taste for that amount of gravity. Hope it turns out drinkable, either way you can say you've done a spontaneous fermentation.
 

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